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Southern Voice/November 22, 1990
15
COUNTERCULTURE
Pete Townshend Makes a Cool Move
Rock's top dude tells the truth about how
by Paul Evans
"Tough boys/Come over here/I want to bite and kiss
you," Pete Townshend sang on "Rough Boys," a Top 5
single, 10 years ago. While "Pete digs guys" seemed the
gist, not even the music press made much of the lyrics,
though Townshend is a rock icon—the main man of the
Who, a band that, with the Beatles and Rolling Stones,
revolutionized culture in the '60s.
Two weeks ago, however, USA Today trumpeted, "Pete
Townshend, out of the closet," and radio, too, got freaked.
To writer Timothy White, (Rock Lives: Profiles and
Interviews) Townshend had spelled it out. The song was
"an acknowledgement.. .that I’d had a gay life, and that I
understood what gay sex was about.”
Along with this candor came some pretty confusing
stuff. Saying, "I'd been surrounded by people that I. .
.was actually sexually attracted to who were men," Pete
added that, "the side of me that responded. . . was a pas
sive side, a subordinate side," thus at least hinting that gay
must equate with passive and subordinate. He also pro
claimed, fairly weirdly, that "I know how it feels to be a
woman because I am a woman." Yeah, right.
Well, honesty is often clumsy. And if Townshend is
one of rock's true thinkers—novelist, spiritual seeker, and
musician who pioneered the fusion of melody and
assaultive rock—he's never been known for subtlety.
What he has been known for is integrity—the antithe
sis of a hidden double-life.
Integrity built the almost mystic bond of the Who and
he loves
its fans—80 percent of whom, Townshend says, were
male. A specific sort of male. Brash, searching, mixed-
up white teenagers—a demographic popular neither with
parents nor powers nor the "politically correct." Other
bands raid this market by condescending to it or pretend
ing pathetically to be 16 when they're actually 32. Such
strategies are doomed: during the late '70s punk revolt,
when the young called other '60s titans "bullshit," the
Who retained respect—which says plenty about
Townshend’s way of relating to his audience. That way
was love. From the start, the Who insisted—in one of its
many anthems—that "The Kids Are Alright."
Now we find that part of Townshend’s love is sexual.
And, in some quarters, there's shock. Grow up.
In other quarters, there's a kind of crowing. "One
more for our side!" That, too, seems childish.
For one thing, it's contradicted by fact. Townshend
appears committed to a marriage that seems just as diffi
cult and real as the rest of his life—presumably his dou
ble-life didn't help his wife and kids. The point remains:
He doesn't seem to want to be labeled exclusively any
thing—hetero, gay, whatever.
Instead, as one his songs exults ("I can do anything!"),
Pete seems to want freedom. Freedom to love anyway,
anywhere, anyhow. Certainly honesty is a first step
toward that responsibility. Call it "coming out." Or just
call it keeping faith with his vision of rock 'n 'roll—a
vehicle for liberation. Call it what you like. It remains a
cool move.
Davies & Starr
Tough boys/Come over here
I want to bite and kiss you
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